Okay guys reverse search engine is exactly what it sounds like. Basically you put a url of an image or upload an image and it will find the image from somewhere on the internet for you. Theoretically speaking you can use it to find the original artist of images or bigger, better quality version of images.

Normally I'll just leave the reverse search engine here and let you go nuts but some disclaimer first.

1) THIS DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK. It's still best to browse websites and find artist yourselves (or ask around). 2) You're might see a lot of porn/disturbing thing thumbnails even thought you don't want to, it's just that so much of the images in the search engine is porn, is bound to happen. Use at your own risk and don't come after me with pitchforks when you get scarred for life, please.

Alright with that out of the way:

Saucenao:

Spoiler:

http://saucenao.com/

I use this search engine to find the owners of pixiv images. If you don't find a perfect match, prepare for a lot of weird hentai <3. This engine isn't perfect but I still say it's pretty useful. Finds images from:H- MagazinesH- AnimeH- Game CGsDoujinshi DB (useful <3)Pixivetc...

Tineye:

Spoiler:

tineye.com

I usually use this for non anime images but this works for popular anime images as well. Best bet if your image is on a blogger.Doesn't always search deviantart though for some strange twisted reason the ones that show up are usually the stolen works. Though that's not always the case, for example works on Kl-chan's deviantart shows up fine. So maybe it has something to do with popularity, still not sure why the stolen works were shown though.

iqdb:

Spoiler:

iqdb.org

I mostly use iqdb if I need a larger image of a thumbnail or something. It does sometimes yield the artist name and website though. It depends on whether the person tags it or not. Good for images that people upload on to image boards. Basically if you know http://e-shuushuu.net/ then you should know the images that this website finds.

Google reverse image search:

Spoiler:

http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en

Just click the camera button. The problem with this is that it rarely shows the original artist as source. However compared to the rest of the search engines this is a good search engine for deviantart <3

Last edited by kirite on May 12th, 2012, 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hey, I have an idea, let's have a THIS SUCKS / NO THIS SUCKS / NO YOU / NO YOU argument for a couple pages, that will really be great. - Ingmar

it's also worth noting in the OP that Google has reverse image search functionality now as well (image search, click the camera icon in the bar, upload a picture/paste a URL), which is really useful considering it's Google and they have like, everything :V

true, but especially in cases where someone crops/edits a picture for use in something else, google's good at helping you find a version of the original picture, even if it ends up not being from the original source.